Friday 7 January 2011

Love Of Beaches


One of my favourite, most underrated Aussie albums from the last decade was Melbourne band Love Of Diagrams' debut effort, The Target Is You - ten tightly honed slabs of electric instrumentals that didnt outstay its welcome yet latched onto you like a tick, seeping its poison into the very marrow of your being until you had it on repeat for three weeks and forgot your own name. They went on to add vocals and produce some great indie rock, but I felt that the immediacy of those initial tracks were never eclipsed.

But this isn't about Love Of Diagrams, but about Beaches, whose new EP Eternal Sphere is coming out on Mexican Summer. Beaches are Antonia Sellbach (Love of Diagrams) on guitar and vocals, Alison Bolger (Panel of Judges) on guitar and vocals, Ali McCann on guitar and vocals, Gill Tucker (Spider Vomit) on bass and vocals and Karla Way on drums and vocals. The sound they evoke covers everything from psychedelic rock to kraut motorik and shoegaze, all very loud, yet its the layered sonic harmonics that impresses. Opening track "In A While" is laden with thick piles of reverb and rippling keys that envelop the vocals, which gasp for air until a knife sharp swath of guitar cuts the whole thing in two. Exhilarating stuff indeed...and not one Bette Midler reference in sight.

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